May 1996

No big surprise, AT&T Wireless Services Inc.’s cellular equipment vendors Lucent Technologies Inc. and L.M. Ericsson were named suppliers for the company’s Time Division Multiple Access personal communications services networks, marking Lucent’s seventh end-to-end U.S. PCS contract and one of …

William A. Wilson, chief financial officer of Arch Communications Group Inc. sees no threat to his company or the paging industry from the new personal communications competitors on the horizon. “Our low cost buffers us from competition,” Wilson said. “It …

NEW YORK-A+ Network Inc. signed definitive agreements to acquire Radio and Communications Consultants Inc. of Shreveport, La., and South Central Paging of Nashville, Tenn. The two paging companies, formerly affiliates of A+ Network, bring an additional 14,000 paging units to …

OVERLAND PARK, Kan.-The national wireless alliance of AirTouch Cellular, Bell Atlantic Corp., Nynex Corp., U S West NewVector Group and PrimeCo Personal Communications L.P. announced they have signed a contract with Independent Telecommunications Network Inc. to provide Signaling System 7 …

NEW YORK-While other cellular carriers are going national and international, Three-sixty Communications Co. sees advantages in taking the road less traveled, through clustered regional markets in the United States. “We are strictly a domestic company,”said Dennis Foster, the company’s chief …

RIDGEFIELD PARK, N.J.-MobileComm, a paging and wireless messaging services provider, and Premiere Technologies, an integrator of information and telecommunications services, announced plans to cross market each other’s services. MobileComm said it will begin offering its customers a communications card called …

Qualcomm Inc. announced the availability of a single-chip vocodor that utilizes PureVoice, the latest version of the 13 kilobit Qualcomm Code Excited Linear Predictive speech coding algorithm. PureVoice was developed for use in Qualcomm’s cellular and personal communications services products …

DALLAS-ProNet Inc. announced it has signed a letter of intent to purchase all of the outstanding capital stock of Georgialina Communications Co. and affiliates for about $11.6 million. The company also signed a letter of intent to purchase substantially all …

Sprint Spectrum L.P. has filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Seattle challenging a six-month moratorium on tower building put in place in February by the city council of Medina, Wash., calling it a violation of the new …

Who are these guys? It’s a question that has popped into my mind repeatedly after 20-plus years as a journalist now covering the wireless communications field. I can’t compete with Andy Rooney, but I’d bet there’s plenty of raw material …

It was one book in Alighieri Dante’s 14th century classic Divine Comedy trilogy that inspired the name for Lucent Technologies Inc.’s new software program, Inferno. The technology behind Inferno will facilitate communications across most all networks, said the company, promising …

WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission announced it has agreed to reduce bid withdrawal penalties faced by Atlanta Trunking and MAP Wireless, bidders in the recent 900 MHz specialized mobile radio auction. The commission reduced Atlanta Trunking’s fine to $45,594-twice the minimum …

As it was pointed out to me time and time again during the aftermath of last week’s C-block broadband personal communications services auction, in every game there are winners and losers. The winners held their press conferences, sent their press …

Dear Editor: Your article in Monday’s RCR is a great disappointment in which you misled your readers. Somehow you have turned a story about differences in opinion between CTIA and a handful of manufacturers, regarding the assessments collected by CTIA …

WASHINGTON-According to a public service announcement aired nationwide in conjunction with National Wireless Safety Week, “Rescue 911” host William Shatner pointed out that more than 50,000 emergency calls are made from wireless devices every day. Some of those callers were …

The MCI One initial package that includes one-number service, free long distance, Internet services and a calling card is offered for $4.95 a month, not $34.95 as stated in RCR’s May 6 issue.

To the Editor: I am appalled by the unprincipled attack on the WTR carried in last Monday’s issue of RCR. The unverified story was replete with untruths, half-truths, misinformation, innuendo and unattributed statements. I am compelled to clarify for your …

Nexus Telecommunication Systems Ltd. announced it has granted a license to operate its wireless messaging system over 2 MHz in the 900 UHF to Eden, a fully owned subsidiary of Nexus set up to operate the messaging system and provide …

WASHINGTON-The near collapse of free trade telecommunication talks in Geneva last month has raised concerns in Congress, and could provide the spark for legislation next year to further open the U.S. market to foreign investors. The House subcommittee on commerce, …

Editor’s Note: The cities listed here represent the 20 largest cellular markets in the United States. Ranking is based on the total number of subscribers in each Metropolitan Statistical Area. Most carriers are unwilling to reveal subscriber numbers because of …

The introduction of fully digital wireless networks means that marginal readings by portable test equipment are no longer acceptable. “It’s all ones and zeros now, so you have to be precisely tuned,” said Jan Whitacre, spokeswoman for Hewlett-Packard Co. That …

Telular Corp. said it is emerging from its restructuring “lean and focused,” in spite of the $12.4 million in one-time charges it cost the company to accomplish the changes. Telular reported a net loss of $17.4 million, or 69 cents …

Sprint Spectrum L.P. has filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Seattle challenging a six-month moratorium on tower building put in place in February by the city council of Medina, Wash., calling it a violation of the new …

WASHINGTON-The spectrum reform draft bill unveiled by Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Larry Pressler (R-S.D.) last week would privatize much of the nation’s airwaves, a fundamental deregulatory policy shift that combined with the new telecommunications law could lead to the overhaul …